Shock absorber mounting position

[Ibrahim M]

Hi,

This week i worked on a golf 4 4motion and noticed something quite unusual.

The shock is mounted as in this picture, this will reduce the motion ratio ( shock moves less than wheel )

What is the reason behind this extreme angle ? Packaging is the only thing i can think of but could there be another reason for that ?

 

[GregLocock]

As you say packaging. But it isn't as simple as that. The rail for the floor runs very close to the floor, so if they were to go with a more upright shock they would have to build a strong, stiff, shock tower above the axle, more or less where the rear seat or trunk is. So it is quite a sizable intrusion into the cabin. With a 'better' motion ratio they need a longer shock absorber, so this tower gets even bigger.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[BrianPetersen]

The Golf 4 4motion was an oddball, and there's not many around. That said ... that photo doesn't look right. The standard Golf twist-beam rear suspension has the shock absorber near-vertical beside/behind the spring. It's supposed to look like this:

https://cdn4.pelicanparts.com/techa...Replacing_Rear_Springs/images_large/pic02.jpg

I'm pretty sure the 4motion rear suspension was designed to re-use the stock attachment points for the twist-beam suspension, including the trailing-arm mount, the coil-spring mount, and the upper shock mount. I'm pretty sure the top of the shock is meant to go up inside that pocket visible to the right/above the top of the coil spring in your photo. Why this was done differently, who knows. The photo looks like the coil spring is near bottomed, and yet it looks like the shock has a ton of travel left if we assume that the outer sleeve is meant to almost reach the bottom when it's fully compressed (like most of them do).

I know the 4motion rear floor section on the Mk4 was different from that used on the front-drive models. That said ... it wasn't *that* different. The standard Mk4 bodyshell wasn't designed to have attachment points for the subframe that hangs onto the rear diff and the control arms, and it wasn't designed to have a driveshaft slicing through where the standard Mk4 has its fuel tank.

The undercoating on the inside of the wheelwell doesn't look factory-applied, or even well-applied. It looks like it has been smeared on with a trowel.

I smell aftermarket hack of some sort ...

That said, plenty of cars including mine have the rear shocks mounted a fair angle off vertical in order to avoid intruding on trunk space.

 

[SwinnyGG]

That said ... that photo doesn't look right. The standard Golf twist-beam rear suspension has the shock absorber near-vertical beside/behind the spring. It's supposed to look like this

That's the stock arrangement for the Mk IV R32. I don't know that all Mk IV 4motion variants used this arrangement, but the R32 definitely did. I've worked on several. The two screw holes in the quarter panel just above the upright are for the fender liner which is not installed in OP's photo.

Yes, it's a little weird.

This is a Mk I TT, which uses the same arrangement: